Thursday, November 26, 2009

Book Reviews: Inkheart and Inkspell

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke was an awesome book for youth and adults alike. If you've seen the movie, the book is even better.

Mo, the father of Meggie has a love and passion for books. He is a book doctor and knows all the illnesses books can get and how to prevent and fix them. Resa is his wife and loving mother of Meggie. What Mo didn't know was that in addition to his love of books he had special gift- a gift of bringing books alive when he reads them aloud. They call him a silvertongue. He could read things or characters unintentionally out of a book. The problem is, if someone comes out of the book, someone goes into the book. He discovered this one fateful night when he was reading Inkheart and his wife Resa disappeared and several of the characters in Inkheart were standing in his house. Capricorn, one of Inkheart's villians, Basta (a villian) and Dustfinger one of the good characters were plucked out of their story and brought into our world. Meggie was only a baby.

Ten years later Dustfinger found Mo and Meggie and begged for him to read him back. Mo knew he was unable to do it. The story goes from there and is one adventure after another. Mo wanted his wife back, Dustfinger wanted to go home to his story full of fairies, brownies and where fire did what he asked it to do.

This book makes you fall inlove with the beauty of books and makes you look at stories in books in a new light. I absolutely loved it!

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke is the sequel to Inkheart. Funke is an amazing writer and really knows how to tell a story. In this book, you spend a lot of time "in the book" Inkheart as Dustfinger is read back into his book near the beginning, but not by Mo. Meggie as you learn in Inkheart has Mo's gift -silvertongue, but she learned that she has more abilities with her gift. She read herself and another character into the book.

Throughout the book you start to wonder if there really is a story going on when before, during and after the book has been written. You learn to love the old fashioned artwork in books. It is action packed and keeps you wondering what will happen next with so many twists and turns. You learn why Dustfinger loves his world so much.

There were several things I did not like about this book. It is written for youth but also for adults to enjoy, so keep that in mind. Meggie is only 13 years old and falls inlove with Farid who I assume is between 16-18 years old. He is like a love-sick puppy over her. They kiss several times and are always together and even spend a night on the beach. All the adults in the book not only approve of their romance, but encourage them-including her parents. Mo even asks her in a teasing manner if Farid has kissed her yet and she blushes as her answer.

Almost all the couples are looking at or have a crush on someone else. Dustfinger is in love with Resa. Dustfinger is married. Fenoglio the writer lusts after Dustfinger's wife. The prince Cosimo has no interest in his "ugly" wife and instead spends his days and night's with Dustfinger's 13 year old daughter.

Additionally, most of the character's relationships are a bit dysfunctional and it's hard not to get frustrated with Dustfinger and his wife for throwing their hands up in the air regarding their daughter and her upbringing.

Aside from these things, it was a spell-binding book. I'm left hanging and will be reading the final book in the trilogy (Inkdeath) next year.

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